The New Jersey Nets and Deron Williams are in town to play the Mavericks on Tuesday. That means one thing is certain:

Williams’ cellphone voicemail will be filled with messages from friends and family requesting tickets and wanting to catch up with the former standout from The Colony.

With Jason Kidd nearing the end of his career, the Mavericks would love to add the 27-year-old Williams, one of the top point guards in the NBA who along with Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard will headline the league’s 2012 free-agent class.

While many children grow up dreaming of one day playing for their hometown professional baseball, basketball or football team, the reality of doing so isn’t always so appealing because it comes with many challenges and demands.

For professional athletes, home isn’t necessarily where the heart is, but heartache is in the neighborhood.

Williams was in high demand two years ago when he was home to play in the NBA All-Star Game in Arlington. In an effort to accommodate as many family members and friends as possible, Williams had to reserve a suite at Cowboys Stadium.

“There was a bunch of us there,” said Kendall Jones, Williams’ younger brother who is a senior guard for The Colony. “He definitely gets a lot of ticket requests.”

Jones won’t be among Williams’ family and friends at American Airlines Center on Tuesday because The Colony is playing a Class 4A Region I quarterfinal playoff game against Wolfforth Frenship at Clyde High School near Abilene.

Jones, however, is familiar with the attention his older brother receives when he’s in town for an NBA game.

“It’s hard to walk around without someone recognizing who he is and asking for an autograph and picture,” Jones said. “I’ve had to get used to walking with him and having to stop about every 20 feet.”

Endless ticket requests

Cowboys running back Phillip Tanner, who grew up in Dallas and graduated from Kimball, experienced both sides of playing for his hometown team as a rookie last season.

Tanner loves playing for the Cowboys, but he also was burdened with so many phone calls from friends last year requesting tickets and his time that he had to change his phone number.

“Folks I probably met once in high school would start out with, ‘I’m proud of you,’ and then say, ‘I really want to see what that stadium is like,’” Tanner said. “It always ends with, ‘Can I get tickets to the game, a sweatshirt, a picture, a hat?’ It can be frustrating at times.”

During the season, Tanner said he would get from four to eight texts or calls a day with people requesting everything from tickets or apparel to asking him to make an appearance or help them start a youth football team.

“It was really hard,” Tanner said. “If I would go out to eat and someone would recognize me they’d say, ‘Give me tickets to the game.’ I’d go to the bank and they’d ask me for tickets, and then when I’d come back they’d say, ‘Where are my tickets?’ I was like, ‘It’s time to change banks.’

“When I would go visit my mother in Oak Cliff, people would ask for things. When I would go up to school to get my daughter everybody wants a picture and sometimes I just want to go in and get my daughter and get out.”

Williams willing

Tommy Thomas, who coached Williams at The Colony and has spent the last eight years working for McClaren Sports in Houston, stays in contact with Williams. Thomas said he hasn’t spoken to Williams in a few months but said Williams “would definitely consider coming home” and playing for the Mavericks.

“He has great friendships and relationships with some of the Mavericks and his family is still there,” Thomas said. “He has great respect for the organization.”

Thomas said that if Williams signs with the Mavericks he would certainly be burdened with requests.

“There would be an extraordinary amount of demands for people who would want an hour or two of his time,” Thomas said. “That would be difficult to manage. And a lot of times people think those tickets are free.”

Tanner said that’s what many of his friends didn’t understand. Tanner said he receives only two complimentary tickets for each Cowboys home game. He has to pay for any others.

Bosh prefers ‘invisible’

Miami Heat forward Chris Bosh, who was born in Dallas and graduated from Lincoln in 2002 (the same year that Williams was a senior at The Colony), never seriously considered signing with the Mavericks when he was a free agent during the summer of 2010.

That had a lot to do with Bosh playing the same position as Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki, but there was a little more to it than that. Last year when the Mavericks played the Heat in the NBA Finals, one of the questions Bosh had to often answer was why he didn’t sign with his hometown Mavericks.

Bosh explained that he prefers to be “invisible” and not have to deal with numerous ticket and appearance requests.

“There will always be demands,” Bosh said then. “Well, you don’t get your hands on extra tickets. That ticket thing is something else.”

Bosh’s mother, Freida, said last year that she never really wanted her son to sign with the Mavericks and move back home.

“People would be asking me for tickets then,” Freida Bosh said. “They still do, and I tell them, ‘Don’t they sell them at the box office?’”

Bosh said there were pros and cons to playing NBA Finals games in his hometown. So, what are the pros?

“Uh, I don’t know,” Bosh said, laughing. “I really don’t know.

“The thrill of playing at home is gone. I’ve been back a lot of times and nothing has changed. It looks the same, the people are the same, so that small thrill is kind of gone. As you get older, it becomes more of a task.”

Williams must decide this off-season if he wants that every-so-often task to turn into a daily headache.